According to a display device disclosed in JP-A-7-198425 or the like, information to which a driver pays attention is predicted on the basis of the travel state of a vehicle, the driving state of a driver, etc. The information to which the driver should pay attention is preferentially displayed on the display device to enhance the visibility. Specifically, for example, it is estimated on the basis of variations in the speed of a vehicle, the steering angle, the gear shift, etc. whether the vehicle travels on a mountain path or not. When it is estimated that the vehicle travels on a mountain path, displays of a tachometer, a boost pressure, a brake, etc. are enlarged. In the case of the mountain path travel, weight is more frequently attached to the engine state and the braking state. In the above display device, the visibility is enhanced by changing the color.
However, even when a specific meter is displayed in a scale-up mode or displayed with an eye catching color, the visibility might be caused to be degraded contrary to expectation if the display style of the specific meter lacks balance to those of other meters. Furthermore, the visibility may not be properly enhanced even in a case where color of a specific meter group is changed according to user's predilection or the like.
In JP-A-2004-157434, a display of a navigation is made in addition to a meter display, so that an analog meter image having an indicating pointer and an indicating pointer turning region are displayed. A ring image is displayed along the outer periphery of the indicating pointer turning region, and also the ring image is displayed as a glossy display to thereby enhance a visual effect or the like.
In JP-A-11-51686, a route guidance device provides a display of a navigation device. It also provides a vehicle stop mode for displaying necessary information in a small display frame on an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) device at the vehicle stop time, and a vehicle travel mode for displaying necessary information in a large display frame on the LCD device at the vehicle travel time for displaying a navigation guide image containing a map, the present position, a guide route at the route guidance time in a small display frame on the LCD device. These modes are switched over in accordance with the speed of the vehicle.
Specifically, there are two display constructions. In one display construction shown in FIG. 9, a meter display area for meter display and a navigation data display area for navigation display are displayed on a display unit 54. In the other display construction shown in FIG. 10, a display unit 54 for displaying navigation data and a meter display unit 59 containing a stepper motor for moving a meter indicating pointer, LED, etc. are contained in a meter 50 as shown in FIG. 10. In each of these display constructions, drawing data for navigation display are created in a navigation device 20, and combined with drawing data from a meter ECU 40 by a drawing ECU 60 or a circuit equivalent to the drawing ECU 60 to create drawing data for meter display. Then the drawing data for meter display are displayed on the display unit 54. In the display construction shown in FIG. 10, only the drawing data for navigation display are displayed on the display unit 54, and the meter ECU 40 creates no meter drawing data and controls the meter display unit 59.
However, in the above display construction, the meter (meter ECU 40) and the navigation device 100 create drawing data separately from each other, and thus a new navigation device 20 must be developed or improved every time the design of the meter is changed. Furthermore, there may be used a method of changing a display design of the navigation device 20 in conformity with the design of the meter 50 by the user. However, the operation required to the user is cumbersome.
Furthermore, for example in a case where a warning indicator is displayed in the meter, the recognition rate of the warning to be transmitted to the user may be lowered when the navigation display is bright or when the navigation display uses the same color as the warning indicator.
In a case where the display size or display position of the navigation display can be varied in the meter 50, if the optimum navigation display style (the number of roads, the number/size of landmarks, the number/size of characters, etc.) cannot be changed in accordance with the size or position, a display would be rare in spite of a large screen or dense in spite of a small screen, so that information necessary for a user cannot be provided and thus an appearance is not acceptable. Furthermore, the user may use a method of changing the navigation display style, however, the operation of the user becomes cumbersome.
There is a method of making unclear the outer edge portion of the navigation display area which comes into contact with the meter display area and gradually varying the color of the outer edge portion toward the meter display area by using gradation processing or the like. However, when the background color of the meter is varied, the profile of the navigation display area is made clear, or when the same color as the meter display area is used for the outer edge portion of the navigation display area, the gradation effect is lowered.
Furthermore, in the above display device, a screen of the navigation device (navigation screen) is installed in a cockpit portion containing a meter. Thus, the meter and the navigation screen are accommodated within a proximate viewing field at the front side of the driver, so that the driver can check the navigation screen without greatly changing his/her eye line from the eye line at the meter viewing time. However, the following disadvantage also exists while inextricably linked to the above advantage.
That is, information displayed on the meter may contain actuation information of a warning indicator group. In order to indicate that the information concerned has high priority or high urgency, the indicators of the warning indicator group are displayed by turning on LED or an output of a specific image or graphic while emphasized with color tone such as red color, orange color which is more eye-catching than the other colors. However, when a colorful navigation screen is simultaneously output in proximity to the indicators, the information to be originally emphasized is under cover of the display color of the navigation screen within the viewing field, so that the indicators becomes less eye-catching. Therefore, the priority or urgency of notification is not transmitted to the driver. Particularly when a graphic having the same color tone as the turn-on color of the indicator group is displayed on the navigation screen, the driver's attention is dispersed to the graphic concerned, and thus the above problem particularly easily arises.